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[AlexxKidd]

Do you think Steam is feeling the heat? Is competition good for all? Epic is throwing it's hat in the ring.

Epic Games, developer of titles like Fortnite, the first Gears of War trilogy, and Unreal Tournament, has announced the creation of a new digital PC store that hopes to compete with Steam by offering an unprecedented revenue split for developers.

The Epic Games Store is launching as a full-fledged game marketplace supporting all sorts of titles. The Fortnite developer hopes to incentivize developers to come over to the Epic Games Store by pushing the revenue split for software further than any platform holder has before, giving developers 88 percent of the revenues while keeping 12 percent for overhead. This is a big change considering the traditional industry standard for digital revenue split usually gives 30 percent to the store owner, whether it be Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Apple, Android, or Valve. Perhaps anticipating this move, Valve recently made adjustments to Steam's revenue model, but only above certain thresholds that most games won't hit.

Source: Game Informer.

 

[NickFire]

Wow. Did not see that coming. Things just got really bright for developers and publishers IMO. Who will weather the coming storm the best? Guessing Sony because their CONSOLE install base / reluctance to adopt cross platform leaves them least affected. Steam has the most to lose obviously. MS must be talking about this internally pretty significantly as well though since their plan seems to be merging console and PC market space.

 

[Thiagosc777]

Competition is always good. If they offer better conditions than Valve or MS or Sony, then I am ok with it.

 

[Alexios]

That's nice, but what features does it offer in return to both the developers and the users? I got the updated launcher and didn't even realize they did this, lol.

Does it offer all the robust server side stuff Steam does for example or will a developer have to have his own backend for his multiplayer game or whatever?

Maybe if they can finish Unreal Tournament already it will have some hype titles for people to bother with it, otherwise it'll remain as the Fortnite Launcher.

 

[FranXico]

Good. Give Valve some competition. Support Linux and you have a believer here, Epic.

 

[NickFire]

That's nice, but what features does it offer in return to both the developers and the users? I got the updated launcher and didn't even realize they did this, lol.

Does it offer all the robust server side stuff Steam does for example or will a developer have to have his own backend for his multiplayer game or whatever?

Maybe if they can finish Unreal Tournament already it will have some hype titles for people to bother with it, otherwise it'll remain as the Fortnite Launcher.

I think you are way over valuing Unreal Tournament and way under valuing a drop to a 12% access fee.

 

[GrayFoxRJ]

We are Unreal orphans, boy.

Let us cry in peace

 

[Solarstrike]

Steam has more going for the pc gaming community than people realize i think. In that, the communities/publishers/developers can interact:

-Community Hubs; Artwork, game specific videos made by players
-Community Guides
-Forums for pretty much all games sold
-Achievements
-Regular and numerous game and software sales throughout the year
-Game developer interaction through forum support or game feed updates
-Good Forum moderation by Steam moderator's (for the most part)
-Integrated voice chat
-Integrated text/messaging chat which has been updated to function with web links; Youtube videos, website articles, etc
-Steam Workshop/mod support for producers whom wish to integrate the feature
-64-bit functionality of the Steam client. This will allow for more versatility per browser function and what it can do. Examples being the ability to play/stream games in your Steam browser (not sure if implemented or testing yet)
-Gabe Newell is our lord and savior. That's all that matters really

 

[theHFIC]

As a consumer, I have already invested in Steam and plan on sticking with them. I do use GoG on occasion for classic titles that I can't get running in DOSBox with my own original install disks. I don't need another launcher and online store to scatter my library with.

I imagine Tencent's investment in Epic Games will help get the store in China faster than Valve's official plans which should do gangbusters for them there with the right titles.

 

[AlexxKidd]

Steam has more going for the pc gaming community than people realize i think. In that, the communities/publishers/developers can interact:

-Community Hubs; Artwork, game specific videos made by players
-Community Guides
-Forums for pretty much all games sold
-Achievements
-Regular and numerous game and software sales throughout the year
-Game developer interaction through forum support or game feed updates
-Good Forum moderation by Steam moderator's (for the most part)
-Integrated voice chat
-Integrated text/messaging chat which has been updated to function with web links; Youtube videos, website articles, etc
-Steam Workshop/mod support for producers whom wish to integrate the feature
-64-bit functionality of the Steam client. This will allow for more versatility per browser function and what it can do. Examples being the ability to play/stream games in your Steam browser (not sure if implemented or testing yet)
-Gabe Newell is our lord and savior. That's all that matters really

Certainly they're going to have to step up the consumer side of this equation, which we don't know what it entails now as the article doesn't mention much about services, but from a developer standpoint there's no question which service is more attractive.

From the article: If a developer's game uses UE4, copies sold on Epic's store don't give a separate percentage to Epic, encouraging developers and publishers to direct their fans to the Epic Game Store and buy there. To get anywhere close to the same revenue split on Steam, a creator would have to make $50 million in revenue on Steam alone before getting to an 80/20 split, with engine fees still on top.

 

[LordRaptor]

If you're a UE developer selling steam keys yourself via your own website, you don't pay valve 30%, but you have to pay Epic 5%.

Many developers feel that the 30% valve takes for sales ONLY via store-steampowered.com - they receive nothing for the sale of steamkeys from any other source - is worthwhile for the visibility and customer base that Steam has.

 

[Alexios]

The features he listed aren't just on the consumer side, they're on the dev side as well. Well if they want to attract consumers and the difference is really that huge then they can offer the games, especially UE games, cheaper there by default, say pass 50% of the developer profit to the user to entice him to the service and grow sales numbers there vs Steam sales.

 

[LostDonkey]

Theres too many stores on PC now its hard to keep track of who offers the best deals, plus fragmented libraries within each platforms app etc its hard to keep a clean concise collection of games when theyre all over the shop (pun intended).

I somewhat envy the consoles for this. One store one location.

 

[CeeJay]

Fortnite ate PUBGs lunch, now they are after Steam's. Only, Steam is already tucking into dessert.

 

[EviLore]

This will be disruptive. Break out that popcorn.

 

[Virex]

Man this is going to be damn entertaining. Didn't see this coming from Epic. But more = more competition which is always a good thing

 

[plushyp]

We are Unreal orphans, boy.

Let us cry in peace

We're never going to find out what happened to Reaper after the end of UT3, are we? Malcom needed to get his just deserts

 

[Sub_Level]

Great for developers and hopefully prompts Steam to give a bigger cut. But from a consumer perspective this is just another damn client.

GOG
Steam
UPlay
Origin
Battle Net
Microsoft Store lol
Epic

I mean fuck.

 

[Fuz]

Yay, another store! Oh joy!


Fuck you all for supporting steam and enabling all of these companies to clutter our PCs with useless bloatware stores.

 

[A.Romero]

I'm glad they are putting that Fortnite money to good use.

This is paying off in a few years. I'm betting that most current customers won't switch unless they get way better pricing on the new store. Personally, I don't mind one more launcher as long as it works well.

Also, don't forget regional pricing!

 

[Shin]

Epic might be going for it and all thanks to 1 game, it's crazy really.
AlexxKidd perhaps, perhaps not - https://www.neogaf.com/threads/valv...share-for-larger-publishers-and-more.1468731/
Ubisoft also bought out a large datacenter recently (i3D.net, which does business with a lot of other corps), so who knows what they will be doing.
The latter have a steady catalog of games to create a proper market place, they could join force even with Epic...I mean why not.

 

[GamesAreFun]

Yay, another store! Oh joy!


Fuck you all for supporting steam and enabling all of these companies to clutter our PCs with useless bloatware stores.

I don't think automatic updates for multiple games through a single, consistent UI is useless. Unless you'd prefer each game to manage its own payment system and updates, or even worse, return to manual patches of days gone by.

 

[Fuz]

Auto updates is the very first thing I disable *everywhere*.

Manual patches all my life, you lazy bastards.

Man this is going to be damn entertaining. Didn't see this coming from Epic. But more = more competition which is always a good thing

Good for the publishers, not for us.

 

[DreamsiclesPlz]

If it's not a Blizzard game or on Steam it might as well be dead to me. I refuse to download more inconvenient storefronts.

 

[zeorhymer]

Fuck another launcher. I have 100s of games on Steam. Only way for them to get me to install their client is if there's a must have game that can't be found anywhere else.

 

[General Lee]

I guess this could be something indies might embrace given the bigger cut and perhaps better visibility, but Epic will first have to make a client people want to actually use over Steam, and that's a tough ask. Steam already has low prices so it's not like they can really compete much on game prices even if devs/publishers are willing to drop them. One more client isn't going to make a big difference, and big publishers will likely stick with their own clients in any case. Hopefully this will simply push other digital store fronts to lower their cut from the arbitrary 30% they more than likely don't need to operate or otherwise deserve.

 

[Sub_Level]

Fuck another launcher. I have 100s of games on Steam. Only way for them to get me to install their client is if there's a must have game that can't be found anywhere else.

EA, Activision, and Ubisoft have their own launchers. So it really comes down to Square Enix, Sega, and Capcom being like "well fuck steam lets go all in on Epic to make a little better margin".

Resident Evil 8 being Epic exclusive on PC, for example, could be a big deal.

 

[NickFire]

EA, Activision, and Ubisoft have their own launchers. So it really comes down to Square Enix, Sega, and Capcom being like "well fuck steam lets go all in on Epic to make a little better margin".

Resident Evil 8 being Epic exclusive on PC, for example, could be a big deal.

If Epic makes it so every person logging into Fortnite sees their store front somehow, I would bet EA et al. would be really tempted by the 12% share for the free advertising.

 

[AlexxKidd]

EA, Activision, and Ubisoft have their own launchers. So it really comes down to Square Enix, Sega, and Capcom being like "well fuck steam lets go all in on Epic to make a little better margin".

Resident Evil 8 being Epic exclusive on PC, for example, could be a big deal.

This is a good point. I don't know about Resident Evil though. Resident Evil VII uses the RE Engine, as does Devil May Cry 5 and RE2 Remake, but I can certainly see someone like Square, who are using UE4 for Final Fantasy VII Remake, jumping on this exclusively with those added UE incentives. THAT is when things will get interesting.

 

[Sub_Level]

This is a good point. I don't know about Resident Evil though. Resident Evil VII uses the RE Engine, as does Devil May Cry 5 and RE2 Remake, but I can certainly see someone like Square, who are using UE4 for Final Fantasy VII Remake, jumping on this exclusively with those added UE incentives. THAT is when things will get interesting.

"Despite Epic being the creators of the Unreal Engine, there's no limitations for what kind of games can appear on the store. Whether developers use Unity, GameMaker, or any other engine to make your games, Epic is willing to sell those titles under its umbrella. "

Even without switching to Unreal, Capcom would be making a better margin.

Of course, by going exclusively to Epic, they run the risk of losing customers who stick with Steam. So at first I highly suspect that the Japanese companies will have games on both.

 

[LordRaptor]

If Epic makes it so every person logging into Fortnite sees their store front somehow, I would bet EA et al. would be really tempted by the 12% share for the free advertising.

Do you... do you think Fortnite on PC has more daily users than Steam does?
Because EA have shown they don't care about eyes on their products on steam.

 

[Grinchy]

At least in the short-term, I imagine getting that extra 18% of much lower unit sales isn't going to be tempting enough for a lot of companies. In the long-term, this is going to shake things up like crazy.

It looks like even the 5% for using Unreal Engine goes away when using their store. If they can get a big userbase, why would anyone put their UE-powered games anywhere else?

 

[Sub_Level]

 

[WaterAstro]

Holy shit! Screw Steam.

I wonder if Epic has an early access program ready because everyone should jump ship.
Also, if it's limited to UE4 and Unity, might not be too great for all indies.

 

[Ovek]

Good i'm sick of Steams old slow and very shit interface. About time Steam has some serious competition.

 

[God Enel]

Good i'm sick of Steams old slow and very shit interface. About time Steam has some serious competition.

Absolutely agree. When steam starts a game update the whole computer is lagging. It’s horrible.

So let’s see how epics steam turns out and I’m gonna download and use it.

 

[WaterAstro]

Despite Epic being the creators of the Unreal Engine, there's no limitations for what kind of games can appear on the store. Whether developers use Unity, GameMaker, or any other engine to make your games, Epic is willing to sell those titles under its umbrella.

GameMaker too, and other engines. This is really great. Now I wonder if they can do something like Early Access because obviously they did Early Access for their own game, Fortnite lol.

 

[Boris The Spider]

88%, gosh. Even more quids in if you use Unreal Engine. Should give a few devs something to smile about and look forward to.

 

[AlexxKidd]

"Despite Epic being the creators of the Unreal Engine, there's no limitations for what kind of games can appear on the store. Whether developers use Unity, GameMaker, or any other engine to make your games, Epic is willing to sell those titles under its umbrella. "

Even without switching to Unreal, Capcom would be making a better margin.

Of course, by going exclusively to Epic, they run the risk of losing customers who stick with Steam. So at first I highly suspect that the Japanese companies will have games on both.

Yes, you still get benefits even if you are not using UE, BUT those benefits alone may not be worth keeping your game OFF Steam's massive userbase. For games that use UE (FFVIIR, etc), a developer might see those benefits as SO good they want their title on Epic's platform exclusively.

 

[bee]

Good i'm sick of Steams old slow and very shit interface. About time Steam has some serious competition.

lol, have you used epics launcher yet? it currently handles under 10 games in total and lags far far worse

 

[Guileless]

I hope it supports Vista since Steam is ending Vista support on Dec. 31. If so, you've got a customer for life, Epic.

 

[petran79]

If it also reduces the cost of UE4 leasing to developers, it should be #1 option for modern games

 

[Futaleufu]

I wonder if all those people playing a F2P game will suddenly want to start paying for other games.

 

[NickFire]

Do you... do you think Fortnite on PC has more daily users than Steam does?
Because EA have shown they don't care about eyes on their products on steam.

Yes. I did not say they would sign up. I said they'd be tempted and I stand by that. Advertising is not cheap. Rejecting "free" ads that cost 30% of revenue does not automatically mean you reject "free" ads that cost 12%.

 

[Lupin3]

Can't wait to see how this turns out. Competition is always good, but personally I'm not all that exited about having to split my library of games. Not the biggest of deals, though.

 

[Lupin3]

Great for developers and hopefully prompts Steam to give a bigger cut. But from a consumer perspective this is just another damn client.

GOG
Steam
UPlay
Origin
Battle Net
Microsoft Store lol
Epic

I mean fuck.

We need a client for clients.

 

[Shifty]

* Does not account for the relative popularity of Steam versus this brand new platform launching into an already-crowded digital storefront market.

Fuck you all for supporting steam and enabling all of these companies to clutter our PCs with useless bloatware stores.

I'm curious, what would be your ideal vision for PC game distribution? Discs? Old school Web 2.0 style stores where you pay once and get an installer link and single-use serial code? An online store and associated login for every game developer? Or having a DRM-free source like GOG be the primary source of digital distribution?

The latter sounds like it could be good, but considering that the switch to digital distribution was inevitable, you can guarantee that various forms of DRM and other storefronts would have taken cues from the console market and ended up happening anyway. There's always someone looking to cut out the middleman for the sake of the bottom line, Valve just so happened to be the ones that set the precedent in this case.

 

[MDSLKTR]

Papa Newell feeling the heat. At least they still got their dotas, card games and hats

 

[Trogdor1123]

I hope it supports Vista since Steam is ending Vista support on Dec. 31. If so, you've got a customer for life, Epic.

That's a joke right?

 

[WaterAstro]

At least we know Epic actually makes games, amirite?